Friday, November 01, 2013

Reflections from attending iNACOL

In his commentary on this weeks’ Torah portion, Toldot, the holy Piaczesno, Rabbi Kalonymus
Kalman Shapira,in his
book Derekh Hamelekh, talks about the
connection between body and soul:

In the upper worlds there
is a lot of holiness; the essential glory and kedusha of the soul is also revealed there. But there is a need to
reveal this holiness also in this world, in the earthly body. Not simply
putting the body and soul together… but rather, that through the connection of
the body and the soul there will be revealed a type of holiness that is not
present even in the upper worlds: the soul and the body transformed together
into a united holiness.

Consider the metaphor of a
burning candle. There is, in the fire, oil and wick. However, do we call the
fire 'oil and wick?' In the beginning there was 'oil' and 'wick' but now they
have transformed to light, one united illumination.

I’d like to extend the Rabbi’s teaching about the
importance of truly uniting body and soul – and not just having them be put
together, side by side – in order to explore how to combine Torah learning and
technology. Indeed, we are encouraged in the morning blessings to engage in
Torah in ways that create a sweet mixture - Ve’ha’erav
na Hashem Elokeinu et Divrei Toratekha Be’finu, G-d please sweeten/combine
the words of Torah [emanating from] our mouths. The word “Ve’ha’erav” from the
root e.r.v means both “sweeten” and “combine.” I read this as guidance to
create sweet combinations – of tradition with contemporary life, of text and
self, of ancient content and contemporary technologies, and of wicks and oil
that transform into innovative illumination.

To be sure, some approaches to combining Torah learning
and computer technology - are merely doing what the Rabbi has called ‘simply
putting them together.’ But I’d like to think there could be more than
that. Much more. Indeed, what would be the equivalent of “transforming
body and soul into a united illumination,” an approach that unites Torah
learning and technology to deliver 21st Century learning befitting
Jewish day schools?

The term “blended learning” perhaps reflects a hope of
combining the best of what the teacher has to bring, with the best of what
online learning can offer – a synergistic illumination. For synergy to happen
it is important not to lose the real-time nature of learning. Teachers
selecting a pre-packaged course - “off the shelf,” so to speak – even if the teacher
is in the room interacting with students, still may not be coming close to
what’s possible. It is important to allow learning to emanate from the creativity
of the teacher. Indeed, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov teaches that there is a real –
hiluk – difference between learning
from a book and learning from a teacher.[2]

On one hand, learning benefits from having top quality
presenters delivering excellent content – and the prospect of bringing
world-class presenters into every class is exciting. On the other hand, quality learning is not
only about the presenters, it is also about the students. Learning is most engaging and dynamic when it
resonates with what is happening in students’ lives, with other subjects they
are studying, with current events in the community and the world, with students’
interests and challenges.

Teachers in the room may not be serving as the main presenters,
but they need to play an essential and creative role in connecting learning to
the uniqueness of students in the room.
Teachers also need to bring in their own presence to enable direct human
encounters between students and teacher – and as Martin Buber has described,
this encounter also brings in the presence of the transcendent. This may be why
Rabbi Nachman stresses the difference of learning from a teacher.

At the iNACOL symposium, my most exciting take-away is
something that seems to begin addressing this need, and may lead toward
creating a “sweet mixture” of Torah learning computer technology. Here’s what I
learned: Raymond McNulty, the Chief Learning
Officer at Pennfoster, told me they have a large selection of vocational high school stackable modules of content that
educators can select from and use to creatively customize learning for their students.A learning module is
a succinct block of on-line content available for teachers to use in building
their course or for self-directed learning. An educator could stack learning modules
– that is assemble them - for students to experience them sequentially or could
allow students to explore a set of modules in an order of their own choosing.
The relatively short duration of modules can allow an educator to respond to
real-time needs and to appropriately select and assemble modules to meet
emergent learning needs.

Platforms that make it easy for teachers to select and use “stackable
modules” can enable them to customize learning to fit each student and the teaching moment. Done well, it could combine teachers’ own
creativity and sense for what will uniquely resonate with students, with top quality
pre-packaged content, and foster real-time context-rich learning.

For example, at The Binah School, middle and high school
students are currently engaged in a learning expedition that builds on Torah
teaching about areyvut (mutual
responsibility) and engages students in creating something in the area of
assistive technology that can help people with disabilities. I can imagine using
stackable online learning modules to get students up to speed on engineering
basics and tools they will be using (such as computer aided design). Getting
the new content from a honed online resources and then brining in an expert to
work with the students on their projects may exemplify “a sweet mixture.”
My colleague, Nomi Feinberg, pointed me to how the
Gates Foundation is creating a resource for such modular units withPowerMyLearning – a free digital
learning platform for K-12 students and educators with learning activities
selected from across the web. Their educators vet games, videos, and
interactive simulations from publishers like PBS, Discovery, National
Geographic, Khan Academy, Scholastic, and tag them by subject, grade,
Common Core standards, and other criteria.

I believe
we have an important opportunity: to develop a user-friendly
platform of quality online Jewish content in stackable modules. There are beginnings of this already happening, for example with Aleph Beta and other resources. These will
support teachers to blend more quality Torah wisdom, not only into Jewish studies classes, but also into
general studies and even into supplementary learning, where time is even more
limited. I would appreciate learning from you about new resources that are becoming available in this rapidly evolving field. Please share what you know, either as a comment to this blog or send me an email at: ronit.zivkreger@gmail.comStackable Torah modules may be one in a set of the tools, that taken together, will enable teachers to play creative roles in connecting learning to the uniqueness of students, and to foster direct encounters between students and teachers. Part of the work will always include the teacher's inner-journey. Parker Palmer puts it this way: "The transformation of teaching must begin in the transformed heart of the teacher." Indeed, Torah teaching benefits greatly from a teacher's connection with G-d.

The word in Aramaic for Torah is Oraita, which means light. I'm excited to continue to be in the
conversation with remarkable educators on how we can most synergistically use
technology to spread the light of Torah.

Dr. Ronit Ziv-Kreger combines her passion for Jewish learning and life with her MIT
training in management science to train and coach educators and to offer school
and learning design consulting for The Binah School, other day schools, and for
CJP’s initiative to reinvent supplementary education in the Boston area. She is a graduate of the Pardes Educators Program and received
her PhD from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

[1] I’m grateful to
the AVI CHAI foundation, and to Program Officer, Rachel Abrahams, for
generously supporting me to attend the iNACOL symposium to represent educators
from The Binah School, in Sharon, Massachusetts, together with the school’s
director of humanities, Nomi Feinberg.

1 comment:

I think it would be valuable to create interactive textbooks designed to combine Jewish and secular topics. Such an online text would include podcasts,videos primary texts, commentary, photos and illustrations, and the opportunity for students and teachers to annotate.